We still don’t eat enough fish, and when we eat it, it is often salmon. Who doesn’t love salmon? This time we smoked the salmon on a cedar wood plank. Two planks because the salmon was just too big for one.
While smoking, we brushed the salmon with a sauce made of honey and soy sauce. This created a sweet caramelized layer.
Salmon is easiest to cook on a plank. The plank protects the fish from too much direct heat and gives the salmon a subtle smoky taste. Win-win, we would say.
Most recipes state that you must first soak the cedar plank in water. We don’t really see the point of that and immediately put the plank on the grid over direct heat and wait for the plank to smoke.
Smoke only forms when wood gets hot enough. And that is undoubtedly hotter than the 100°C at which steam is created. The plank will only really start producing smoke when all moisture has been gone. Why wait for that.
When we see that small strings of smoke come off the plank, we turn the plank(s) over and place the salmon on it.
We sprinkled the salmon with coarse salt and ground black pepper for 45 minutes before placing it on the plank. The salt will soak into the salmon, and the pepper will stick to the surface. That gives the salmon a primary flavour that just enhances the taste of the salmon. If you like these pure flavours, you can leave it and just smoke the salmon.
Of course, we don’t. It would be such a shame about the honey sauce we made. The salty salmon with the sweet sauce is a great combination that you won’t be able to keep away from. We can guarantee you that.
So this is the caramelized planked salmon that you serve as plucked salmon. Have a stack of crackers and a few forks ready and let everyone pick for the salmon themselves.
If you are going to make this salmon, let us know in the comments below. Or better! Take a photo and post it on Instagram. Tag @bbq.heroes so we can see what you made.
